[Figure: ResultsTldr]

## Overview

Squaring the nock end of an arrow is one of those things everyone agrees
on but nobody gets excited about. I'm guessing a lot of shops and arrow
builders don't bother. We were curious how much it actually changes the
groups, so we did a quick non-scientific side quest between test sets.

Same standard-speed build as the rest of the 2026 vane study: shooting
machine, Hoyt AX3 33, 28″ draw length, 70# draw weight, ~290 fps,
bow tuned to a bullet hole at 15 ft. We cut a fresh set of arrows on
the arrow saw the way most builders would, shot a group, squared the nock
end, and shot another group with the same arrows.

No measurements, no confidence intervals, no data file. Just two photos of
two groups: same build, same machine, same target, same bow. The only
thing that changed between them is whether the nock end was squared.

[Figure: Arrow group on a paper target before squaring the nock end of the arrows]